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<strong>paul</strong> <strong>simon</strong> – 1984 <strong>playboy</strong> <strong>interview</strong> small black beetles: the overkill<br />
Playboy: To your fans, it seemed recently that Simon and<br />
Garfunkel had achieved something extraordinary: You<br />
reunited after 11-year split and became a success all over<br />
again. The climax was to be a new album together. That<br />
didn't happen. Why?<br />
Simon: This is going to feel like that Harold Pinter play<br />
Betrayal, because to start, we are going to have to unreel<br />
backward to late 1980. That was when I finished One-<br />
Trick Pony. The movie came out to mixed reviews - and<br />
the soundtrack album didn't do nearly as well as I'd<br />
hoped. It was a period of great depression for me. I was<br />
immobilized. And it was about that time that I came<br />
under the influence of a man named Rod Gorney, who's a<br />
teacher and a psychiatrist in Los Angeles. I heard about him<br />
from a friend and called him from New York.<br />
Playboy: Was your rapport instant?<br />
Simon: Well I flew right out to California to see him and<br />
went directly to his house from the airport. We sat down<br />
and he said, "Why have you come?" I said, "I'm here<br />
because, given all the facts that I'm young and I'm in good<br />
health and I'm famous - that I have talent, I have money -<br />
given all these facts, I want to know why I'm so unhappy.<br />
That's why I'm here." We began to talk, and among the<br />
things I said was "I can't write anymore. I have a serious<br />
writer's block, and this is the first time I can't overcome it.<br />
I've always written slowly, but I never really had a block." I<br />
was really depressed.<br />
Playboy: What made you feel so bad?<br />
Simon: It was many things, but essentially, it was my work<br />
and my relationship with Carrie. She and I were breaking<br />
up, which we were always doing. Faced with a problem<br />
that made us uncomfortable, we were inclined to say,<br />
"Hey, I don't need this." We were spoiled, because we<br />
were both used to being the center of attention.<br />
Playboy: And you felt you particularly needed attention at<br />
that point?<br />
Simon: Definitely. I had a severe loss of faith over the<br />
response to One-trick Pony. Also, I had switched labels,<br />
from Columbia to Warner Bros., with great trauma. When I<br />
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